Own Your Story

OWN YOUR STORY!

No one owns your story but you.

Claim It

Name It

Frame It

Inspire to empower-- yourself and others. Affirm your greatness and proceed with confidence, even when you stumble.

Our Story

Own Your Story was founded in 2018 by Dahlia DeWinters, Ja'Nese Dixon, Katara Johnson, N.D. Jones, and Dariel Raye. Blogger and author, Kimberly Ranee Hicks, also helped in the early conceptualization of the collaborative effort. These "six sisters" came together as independent authors, publishers, and businesswomen to support members of the independent publishing community.

Meet the Founders

"If you're always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be." Maya Angelou

Dahlia DeWinters

Dahlia DeWinters a romance writer who flirts with the dark side. While many of her stories still dabble in the hearts and roses genre, it is often against a sinister backdrop. She is a lover of all things scary, even though she tends either to watch them while gripping her husband’s arm or between her fingers. Her enthusiasm for found footage horror, surprisingly, has rewarded her with a few gems. Drawing, fiber arts, and gardening are a few of the things she does in her spare time, when not dreaming up stories of zombies, mysterious happenings in gothic mansions or screening horror films.

Ja'Nese Dixon

Ja’Nese Dixon pens tales of romance in various subgenres. But her favorites are the ones that manage to keep readers sitting on the edge of their seats lying to themselves about reading “just one more chapter”.

She is an avid reader and coffee drinker, who also loves to run, cook, and craft. Her ultimate goal as a writer is to give you a little “staycation” with every story.

Ja’Nese calls Houston home with her husband, three kiddos, and a four-legged diva dog.

Katara Johnson

Katara Johnson lives in sunny Florida with her family. She is a social media promoter, personal assistant, radio talk show host, and an aspiring author.

For ten years, Katara used her degrees in human services and psychology as an allied health professional. Starting her own radio show and business was a different path for Katara but also an extension of her passion for community outreach. Her love of reading, indie authors, and creativity, in its many forms, prompted Katara to join the indie community, as a woman of business and supporter of entrepreneurs. Katara is a learner, builder, and motivator.

N.D. Jones

N. D. Jones is a USA Today Bestselling author who lives in Maryland with her husband and two children. She is the founder of Kuumba Publishing, an art, audiobook, eBook, and paperback company. Kuumba Publishing is a forum for creativity, with a special commitment to promoting and encouraging creative works of authors and artists of African descent.

A desire to see more novels with positive, sexy, and three-dimensional African American characters as soul mates, friends, and lovers, inspired the author to take on the challenge of penning such romantic reads.

As a child, she could always be found curled up with her dogs, cats, and a good book, even if the book was a dictionary or encyclopedia. Things have not changed much. Dariel is a classically trained soprano, and plays more than 11 musical instruments. She also completed coursework and passed comprehensives towards a Ph.D. in Instructional Design (ABD), tutors writing, algebra, and statistics, teaches piano and voice, and readily admits to being a Netflix paranormal and action series binge-watcher.